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I've actually been doing stuff, just not blogging regularly. I got back
from Qt DevDays in Munich, and have some pictures to show off from the
Deutsches Museum and other spots in that fair city. See the photos.

I've just release QBrew 0.4.1. This is a bugfix release. It also
includes printing improvements including print previes, and I've
converted all the DOM to Qt's streaming XML. Get it at http://www.usermode.org/code.html

The reason I haven't had a recent post is that I've been busy. I'm
running for local office. I'm running committee member for the county
Republican Party. It's as low as you can get on the ballot. Even dog
catcher is higher! I'm doing this because I think the Republican Party
is going in the wrong direction.

I'm a write-in candidate. I've collected my necessary signatures, and
if I can get the necessary votes on June 3rd, I'm in.

Apparently Lew Rockwell has gotten onto the conspiracy bandwagon. Two
posts today at his blog show that he has fallen for the conspiracy
theory of the Kennedy assassination. Once you ignore parsimony and
start multiplying entities, anything seems possible.

Super Tuesday and the California primaries are over. Ron Paul only
earned 4% of the popular vote, and none of the delegates. I saw this
coming in advance, and now that it has happened, let me offer up a
blunt post mortem analysis.

Why we lost:

Lack of Central Leadership

From the beginning the official campaign kept a hands-off attitude
towards the grassroots Meetup organizations. Ostensibly this was so
that the campaign would not be responsible for the actions of the
Meetups. But in retrospect it meant that there never was a local
campaign. The Meetups were composed of volunteers with zero political
experience, trying to figure this all out on their lonesome.

Unresponsive Campaign

When the Meetup did need seek guidance or help from the official
campaign, the response was either non-existant or very slow. The best
example I had of this was in trying to get the county voter
registration data. The campaign never provided any help in getting
this data, despite repeated requests from several people and
myself.

Acting Like a Cult And Not a Campaign

This blame goes to the grassroots Meetups. We spent way too much
time trying to find committed activists, and way too little
time trying to find voters. We waved signs and hung banners instead of
going door to door. I sent out repeated calls for telephone canvassing
throughout the month of January and first of February, but out of
several hundred Meetup members, I only got four respondents. Door to
door canvassing was slightly better, but was still woefully short of
the effort needed.

Libertarian Naivete

Political inexperience has always afflicted libertarian
campaigns. We don't know what we are doing, are unwilling to
compromise a minor principle to achieve a greater political gain, and
have this bizarre belief that if only we can get our message out
people will automatically vote for us. We need to grow up and get a
clue.

Ignoring Republicans

As amazing as it may seem, the grassroots and campaign seemed to
ignore Republicans, even though Ron Paul is himself a Republican
running in Republican primaries. Way too much emphasis was placed on
converting Democrats and independents. We expected that they would
change their registration. Stupid. In the meantime, we never did any
outreach to actual Republicans.

I have other criticisms, but those are the main ones. Already I am
hearing people cry conspiracy that Ron Paul did not win. But it was no
conspiracy that lost him Super Tuesday, it was old fashioned poor
campaigning. We need to learn from our mistakes.

Eric Dondero, former libertarian leaning Republican, finally melts
down into a puddle of frothing hate. In response to a perfectly
ordinary article talking up at Third
Party Watch, Mr. Dondero has this to say [redacted]:

A BIG FAT <bleep> YOU FROM A FORMER FRIEND. DONT YOU EVER
<bleep&gtING CALL ME OR CONTACT ME FOR ANYTHING EVER AGAIN. YOU HATE
AMERICA AND EVERYTHING IT STANDS FOR YOU <bleep&gt.

This rant and several more like it in subsequent posts came out of
nowhere. This jerk is seriously unstable. Any respectability he had in
the libertarian movement has just evaporated.

You would think that anarchists would be a fairly homogenous
group. They might favor different bands, watch different television
shows, and partake of different cuisines, but politcally they would
all pretty much be the same. I mean, once you separate the
anti-state anarchists from the anti-hierarchy anarchists, there
don't seem to be more faults to cleave.

But you would be wrong. In a post in the comment section of his
"Take the
A-Train" article, RadGeek lists an impressive number of them:

So the term includes not only Rothbardian
anarcho-capitalists (which I'm not one of), but also agorists (such as
Brad Spangler), voluntaryists (such as Wendy McElroy), Proudhonian
anarchists, American equitists and mutualists such as Josiah Warren or
Stephen Pearl Andrews, and the voluntary socialism or free market
anti-capitalism of individualist anarchists such as Benjamin Tucker,
Lysander Spooner, Voltairine de Cleyre, or - to move ahead to the
modern day - Kevin Carson or Joe Peacott.

I am at the KDE
4.0 Release Event. Tons of KDE developers and users are here, as well as a couple of Trolls. Some people I know, most I am meeting for the
first time. Google is hosting the event, which is just down the street
from where I live. I think I live the closest from everyone else.

Today is mainly breakout sessions and hacking. So far I have attended
a FreeBSD BoF (birds of a feather) with Adrian de Groot. A tour of the
Google facilities starts in fifteen minutes. Tomorrow will have
the actual release celebration. Speeches and presentations and stuff.

The Ron Paul newsletter has been all but ignored by the mainstream
media. But the cosmotarians
have picked up on this as an excuse for an all out purge of the
less-than-moderates in the libertarian ranks.

There is list of the witch hunters on Timothy
Sandefur's blog. Reading through those postings, how can you call
it anything other than a purge? They are calling for the ousting of
everyone associated with the Ludwig von
Mises Institute, stretching so far as to include even Walter
Williams in that group, for daring to write the introduction to
Thomas DiLorenzo's book.
Even the father of the modern libertarian movement, Murray Rothbard, is not
immune. This isn't new
of course. Many of the same players were involved in the 1984 split in
the Libertarian Party.

I hate taking sides, but that does not stop me from looking on in
horror at the cosmotarians gathering faggots for the stakes. God
forbid that a libertarian message escape their cloisters.

The mainstream media thrives on controversy, fashions itself a
kingmaker, and is biased towards big government. So it was only a matter
of time before big media decided to turn its attention to the Ron Paul
campaign. That was today, with the New Republic's smear piece by
James Kirchik. I won't link to it here, it's too distasteful. It
alleges racism, bigotry, and "neo-confederacy".

Here's the nuts: A long time ago Ron Paul lent his name out to a
newsletter; someone ghostwrote a racist article using Dr. Paul's name;
Ron Paul neglected to read the article before it went out in his
name. Years later they came up in his congressional campaign, and he
disavowed them. Then again. And again. The media is only able to find
one ball of mud to throw at Ron Paul, but it keeps throwing it over
and over again.

Anyone who knows Ron Paul or has followed his career with any
attention, knows that he is not a racist or bigot. His error in this
episode is only that he has not rent his beard and put on sackcloth
and ashes to validate the smearmongering (as some in the
libertarian quarter are demanding of him). I fear that this may be
the crippling blow to his campaign. I hope I am wrong.

Silly me, it seems I've volunteered for KCalc duties. There are a tiny
handful of apps that need some loving or they will be dropped from
the KDE 4 release. KCalc was one of them. Since this is an app I use
frequently I stepped forward. I hope there won't be a trigonometry
quiz on this!

The first major problem I see is the interface. I am currently
converting this to Designer UI format. The other major problem is the
use of GMP. It's license was recently changed to LGPL3, which
some people say is incompatible with KCalc's GPL2+.

Breaking news! Eric Dondero, an infamous advocate for military
interventionism, had his head explode today. In response to a post by
yours truly on Reason's Hit &
Run blog, Mr. Dondero's head exploded in an overload of
rage.

Brandybuck <bleep> YOU. YOU ARE <bleep>
SUPPORTING ISLAMO-FASCISM IF YOU DON'T SUPPORT THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAND
AND IRAQ.

You're as good as <bleep>ing Osama Bin Laden's
<bleep>, if you oppose the War on Islamo-Fascism. Stop with all
the bull<bleep> you little <bleep>ing coward.

For some bizarre reason, libertarians have adopted this day as their
own. I'm not sure they know what it means. For several centuries
in England, it was an anti-Catholic holiday. Then along came the
graphic novel and movie , "V for Vendetta", and suddenly Guy Fawkes
became a libertarian hipster. His attempt to blow up parliament would
have killed many innocents not party to any wrongs he had
suffered. This is what many misguided libertarians are celebrating,
violent nihilist revolution.

It is justified to meet violence with violence. One may legitimately
use force to defend themselves against government tyranny. But the
force of the defense must be proportional to the force of the offense!
If we want to change our government, we must do it at the ballot box
and with the soapbox. Not by murdering people with bombs.

Celebrating Guy Fawkes Day is as stupid as celebrating Timothy McVeigh
Day.

This makes me mad. A few months ago some
NAU conspriracists starting showing images of an Amero coin as "proof"
that the North American Union was genuine. I've seen pictures of these
coins on anti-NAU literature and in forums. One person I talked to
face-to-face said "It's true! I've seen the coin!"

The only problem is, the coin is fake. Not only is it a fake, the coin
artist fully admits to it. Daniel Carr is the artist for these
coins. You can buy them on his website, http://www.dc-coin.com/.
Here's a link to the Amero
coin page.

I have no problem with people making fake or parody coins to promote
an issue. I have a major problem, however, with people deliberately
using fake evidence to prove their conspiracy.

I've made to software releases this week, that have been a long time
in coming. The first is QBrew 0.4.0, the second is HârnMaker
0.5.0. Both have been ported to Qt 4.3, with corresponding UI
improvements. You can access them at
http://www.usermode.org/code.html

For years GPL advocates has been spreading the idea that a second
party can relicense a copyrighted work. Because of this, it is a common
belief in many Linux communities, that it is permissible to "file off"
certain unrestricted licenses and replace them with the GPL.

Recently a few Linux developers, on advice from the FSF's lawyer, did
just that with the Atheros driver in OpenBSD. This is in violation of
copyright law, and nothing short of bald faced plagarism.

I'm stepping down from the Silicon Valley Ron Paul Meetup after only two
meetings. My stated reasons are lack of time and organizational skills.
Another reason, and the emotional impetus, are all the conspiracists. There
are enough of them in the grassroots that my comfort level is exceeded.

Thanks to my employer, I now have a subversion repository for
QBrew. Public read-only anonymous access is at
https://cvs.ics.com/svn/qbrew,
using account "qbrew" and password
"qbrewguest". You will need a
Subversion client.

Will these conspiracies never stop coming? Now my mother is sending me
links regarding the North American Union conspiracy. Sheesh.

There are a lot of dots behind the NAU theory, and those dots are
indeed dangerous. NAFTA is a horrible trade agreement (that has
nothing to do with "free trade"). It's highways are financial
boondoggles. The SPP has been given more power than it ought, and
needs congressional oversight. And as always, the CFR is still a bunch
of nefarious globalists. Those dots are real and deserve genuine
concern. But the connections the conspiracists draw between then are
pure delusional fantasy.

It is impossible for the NAU to happen in secret. It cannot happen
without lots of treaties, lots of congressional bickering, and a
constitutional amendment. None of this is happening. It has not even
started.

All this energy expended on "uncovering" the NAU conspiracy, could
have been spent promoting the idea of genuine Free Trade.

I am listening to an audio lecture by Walter Block on Austrian
Economics. When he got to the section on money, he criticized
Milton Friedman for objecting to the gold standard. This is almost a
kneejerk response for Austrians. They don't seem capable of discussing
money without ragging on Friedman.

What sort of monetary system would arise in a truly free society in
the modern age? I do not know, and neither do the Austrians if they
are honest. Instead of insisting on one particular kind of money, the
Austrians should instead leave it to the free market to decide.

It would be as silly to replace the Federal Reserve with a mandatory
gold standard (and matching central bank), as it would be to replace
the Department of Education with mandatory homeschooling. The key word
here is "mandatory". Let people choose for themselves what kind of
education they give their childen, and what kind of money they will
use to pay for it. While Milton Friedman's idea of an indexed money
supply is not the ideal, how is it worse than a central government
bank issuing gold certificates?

If Austrian economists really do want a free market in money, then
they should say so, and stop using the term "gold standard". That term
has become a shibboleth.

"Repeal of legal tender laws would restore constitutional
government and protect the people's right to use a currency chosen by
the market because it serves the needs of the people, instead of
having to use a currency chosen by the State because it serves the
needs of power hungry politicians and special interests."

I got to the rally early, and helped direct traffic. There was
some confusion from Google Security as to where we could park, but
that situation was resolved. When Ron Paul arrived and parked, I
headed down to the rally. Joe Banister was finishing up, and
Mr. Griffin started. He talked about damned conspiracy crap. At least
he was only allowed to spew for ten minutes. Then Justin Raimondo
spoke, to bring back some sane rhetoric.

Then Ron Paul came down! People stood and cheered. The good Dr. Paul
talked on the proper role of the President and Federal Government, the
monetary system, foreign policy, government secrecy, and individual
liberty. "The purpose of government is to protect that right [life and
liberty], not to meddle in it!"

After his speech, there was a lunch fundraiser at Michael's Restaurant
at Shoreline Park. Ron Paul spoke again, talking about the campaign
and growing support.

I'm at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Foster City with Ron Paul and thirty
to forty supporters in a private campaign briefing. Earlier today
Dr. Paul took a tour of Google. I have heard that there were one
thousand Google employees there!

Burt Blumert and Lew Rockwell introduced Ron Paul, who then told us of
the campaign and its building momentum. There were lots of pictures
and videos taken of this event, so you may see some of them here
soon.

Tomorrow is the Big Rally in Mountain View! I will try to make some
blog entries during the rally.

Silly me, I've gone and signed up to take over the Palo Alto Ron Paul Meetup.
There's a big rally this weekend at Google, and I'm planning to
semi-live blog it. There are several related events Friday and
Saturday, so I'll be quite busy.

As you can tell by my latest posts, the current burr up my butt is
conspiracists. I've collected some links debunking various
conspiracy theories, as well as some general information regarding
them. I'm posting some of them here for you.

My last blog entry was about conspiracists. Elsewhere on the net I've
been much harsher in my opinions of them. Imagine my shock this
afternoon upon discovering that I was heading down the path to
becoming one myself!

Politically, I am opposed to the income tax and the Federal
Reserve. So upon watching Aaron Russo's "America: Freedom to
Fascism" last week, I was hooked! My politics and the film were in
sync. I was determined to spread this news to as many people as
possible, so I made a bulk order of 100 DVDs to pass out to
friends, family, meetups, etc. Today the order arrived. I was so
excited!

I wasn't completely stupid, however. I knew the film was
sensationalist and engaged in quite a bit of hyperbole. I could see
that Mr. Russo had played fast and loose with some facts. I also
didn't like the over-the-top clip with Lou Dobbs at the end. But I
believed that in the whole it was telling the truth: The IRS and the
income tax were unlawful, and the Federal Reserve banks were running
the country.

But I'm a natural skeptic. I was smelling something fishy. I was
thinking up excuses to tell people, to get them to watch the
film. I imagined telling folks, "Yeah, it's sensationalist, but once
you get past that it's a good film." I was trying to explain to others
why it wasn't a conspiracy film like "Loose Change". Most disturbing
of all, the 9/11 Truthers were glomming onto the movie. The smell became
strong enough that I had to do a tiny bit of fact checking.

I knew there had to be more rebuttals to this film than just the IRS
FAQ. I found them. I should have looked at Wikipedia first, because it has
some good information. I don't always trust Wikipedia, but it's a good
place to start from, and it helped me find some good rebuttals of the
film. More importantly, I discovered the law that Aaron Russo said
didn't exist!

The message in the film is still a good message, but it is a message
that does not need to be bolstered with lies. The income tax may
not be illegal, but I still want to abolish it. The Federal Reserve
may not be a conspiracy, but it still has too much control over the
economy. And of course, our government is far too large for our
good.

I now understand a bit better the mind of the conspiracist. It's a
trap one falls into. If I had been a bit more credulous, I might be one
myself. That's a sobering thought.

I wrote this letter to a Ron Paul mailing list. I received so much
positive response to it, that I'm posting it here. Ron Paul's campaign
is striking a chord, and attracting supporters from everywhere. Some
of these new supporters are conspiracy theorists. This is my letter to
them.

I do not believe in conspiracy theories, but I know some of you do. Please
hear me out. If we want to get Ron Paul elected, then we cannot have him get
labeled a conspiracist. It doesn't matter how right his message is, no one
will listen to it if they think he's a nut.

Did some of you tune me out when you read the word "nut"? Well guess what?
When people see the word "zionist", they tune out! It's racist. When people
see the phrase "9/11 truth", they tune out. When people see the
words "Bilderberger" or "Trilateralist", they tune out. Heck, they even tune
out when the see the words "Council on Foreign Relations", and that's an
organization that's not even secret!

It is my firm and unwavering belief that evil men are capable of doing evil
things without having to resort to conspiracies to explain it. Really, they
are. It doesn't matter whether the government is being controlled by a secret
cabal of masters or not, it is STILL the same government: bloated, unjust,
oppressive, subjugating. Focusing on the conspiracies only misdirects your
attentions away from the real problem: the government is bloated, unjust,
oppresive and subjugating!

It is a diversion, a diversion that dilutes and diminishes the message. The
message that we supporters need to be spreading is one of limited government
and individual freedom. Do not diminish that message, please.

I'm still figuring how I want this blog to work. I'm trying to feel
the direction I want to go. Since I've become uncomfortable with
including political rants here, I have removed them. I may still
occasionally make a positive political post, but I'm keeping the
negative rants and screeds out.

The Phase widget style is still being maintained in KDE, but since it
is now a "pure" Qt 4 style, I am making a snapshot available for
it. There are still some TODO notes in the code, but it is complete
and usable. You can find it on my software page.

There once was a fabulous apple tree. No matter how many apples one
would take from it, there were just as many as before! When this was
heard by the villagers they all rushed to the apple tree and took
apples. But no matter how many they took, there were just as many
apples as before. But some of them came and took apples and locked
them within a chest, so that none could steal them. And they laughed
at the other villagers, saying, "Look, they do not protect their
apples. Surely a thief will come and steal them."